1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a head suspension used in a disk drive incorporated in an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer. In particular, the present invention relates to a method of cutting a half-finished laminated material such as a half-finished head suspension into a finished product.
2. Description of Related Art
A magnetic recording apparatus writes and reads data to and from a magnetic disk or a magneto-optical disk with the use of a magnetic head that is resiliently supported with a head suspension. The magnetic head includes a slider that faces a recording surface of the disk and a transducer that is incorporated in the slider. When the disk is turned at high speed, the slider slightly rises from the surface of the disk, to form an air bearing between the disk and the slider.
The head suspension that resiliently supports the magnetic head includes a load beam, a flexure made of a thin plate spring joined with the load beam, and a base plate resiliently supporting the load beam. A front end of the flexure supports the slider having the magnetic head.
Parts of the head suspension such as the load beam and base plate are formed from a metal thin plate such as a stainless steel thin plate by punching or etching. These parts are assembled and fixed together by, for example, laser spot welding, to form the head suspension.
According to a related art disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-57723, each part of the head suspension is made from a frame by punching or etching, the frame having a plurality of the same parts chained at predetermined pitches. Such frames are assembled and fixed together by, for example, laser spot welding, to form half-finished head suspensions chained at regular intervals. The half-finished head suspensions are cut from the frames into individual head suspensions.
To cut the half-finished head suspension into an individual head suspension, the half-finished head suspension is held between a die and a pad and a punch is moved along the pad.
Cutting half-finished head suspensions into individual head suspensions involves precise positioning. To achieve this, tools including the die, pad, and punch must maintain high accuracy. As the tools are used, they wear. To maintain high accuracy for the tools, maintenance must properly be repeated. Namely, accurately cutting half-finished head suspensions into individual head suspensions increases the number of manufacturing processes.